Russia: 1.9GW auction for solar, wind and hydropower

A large scale renewable energy project has been announced by the Russian administration of the Treading System. It is open to solar, wind and hydropower projects and is expected to award contracts for projects with a combined capacity of 1.9 GW.

According to the Russian Association of Wind Power Industry (RAWI), all of the 1,900 MW of applications can be submitted for the tender this year. Of this capacity, however, only 250 MW will be commissioned in 2018, while another 300 MW must come online in 2019. In 2020, around 350 MW of project will have to be connected to the grid, while in the following two years another 500 MW per year will become operational. According to Bloomberg, the auction will run from May 29 to June 9, in two stages.

RAWI, on the other hand, revealed that in the first day of applications submission wind project proposals totaling 450 MW were submitted, without providing information on solar and hydropower projects. The association also said that domestic content requirement included in the auction will be raised from 40% currently to 65%, starting 2019.

Up to 2024, Russia aims to install a solar capacity of 1.52 GW in its wholesale market. A further 1.18 GW is planned to be installed in the period 2024-2030. So far, four rounds of auctions have been held between 2013 and 2016, and these have awarded a total of 2.06 GW of renewable energy capacity.

Russia had reached 540 MW of installed PV capacity at the end of last year. Of this, 60 MW was installed in 2015, while another 70 MW was connected to the grid in 2016. The remaining 400 MW comes from several PV plants located in Crimea, which were seized by local authorities after the region was annexed to Russia in 2014.

According to a report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) last week, Russia has the potential to double its 2030 solar target to 5 GW. The report stressed that stand-alone PV in particular has strong potential in the country’s isolated regions.

The Russian government is also currently considering the introduction of a net metering scheme to support residential and commercial PV.